MacBook air and projector connection.

I am having some issues with the new Macbook air (mid-2011) and connecting a data projector. I got the adapter to VGA and everything seems to work fine most of the times when booting MacOS Lion. However, sometimes the Macbook would not recognize the beamer resolution and switch to 648x480. This can then be adjusted manually and works.

Booting into Windows 7 (Bootcamp installation) gives different issues. 2 out of 3 projectors tested refused to recognize the signal from the Macbook. The third did everything automatically with the correct resolution. Putting the baby to sleep and waking up did not help. Connecting the adapter before/after beamer was ready did not help. Manually setting resolution as well as using Win plus P shortcut did not help. The graphics card driver seems to be the newest available.

Some projectors don't work properly if the broadcast resolution is not supported by the projector. If you know the supported resolution, try setting it to that in your macbook prior to connecting to the projector.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it and it does not work. Tried to connect before/during/after booting Windows. Also tried setting several different resolutions and refresh rates before/after connecting projector. Even did install an older graphics driver from Intel. All without any success.

The adapter and cable are okay- otherwise it would not work with the same setup under MacOS.

Do you have any other cables you can try with the projector? Eg: Macbook air ---> HDMI ?

Rather than struggle figuring it out, if you can I would suggest you ask apples technical support, or someone at their store. I imagine this should be a common enough task that it should "just work", so since it isnt they should have an answer

I am having exactly the same problem. I have a new MBA with the thunderbolt port runnng Win7 64-bit in a bootcamp partition. Tried connecting to two external projectors with no success. With one the MBA see's the projector and adjusts the display resolution but will not display on it; with the other it didn't even recognise the projector.

Tried all sorts of things to make it work, including re-booting both devices while connected, but with no success.

Looks like we're all having the same issue of getting a VGA adapter to work when ruuning from a Win 7 partition.

I have tried the VGA adapter under the Lion OS to project a Keynote slide show - works like a dream. That would pretty much eliminate any hardware issues. I tried a number of projectors under Win 7 OS without any sign of life.

I also tried the Intel Graphics control panel in Windows which kept telling me that I didn't have an external monitor connected.There would seem to be a problem with the Windows driver for the Thunderbolt port.

I have put some of my problems up there as well. For me nothing worked. Nobody in two Apple stores could help. VGA adapter did not work at all, regardless of the order of connecting cable and adapter. Tried two more adapters and two more cables. Mini-Displayport to DVI -Adapter did also not work. Everything works well under MacOS. Must indeed be something with the Thunderbolt/Mini-Displayport combination port and the Windows driver.

I've found the cause of my issue - dodgy DVI to VGA convertor. Bought a mini-displayport to VGA adapter and all working fine. Then removed the DVI to VGA converter from my original mini-displayport adapter and connected that to a DVI monitor and also worked fine.

I have to say it was a guy at the Apple store in Perth that pointed out to me that previous mini-displayport adapters were compatible with the newer thunderbolt ports. So points to them.

So does that means the new Macbook Air should not have any problems using the MiniDisplay to VGA while in Bootcamp? I'm afraid to get the newer Macbook Air because of the problems I'm facing witht he Thunderbolt port on my Macbook Pro .... once bitten twice shy

Well, it's working fine on mine now using both DVI and VGA cables. I thought it was going to be a saga of incompatible drivers or some such thing but once I replaced that dodgy adapter it works a charm. Just like my old Dell running Windows 7 native.

I purchased a MB Air (2011) and at the same time ordered a Thunderbolt to VGA converter. This does not seem to work with Windows 7. Apple claims that devices that utulize a mini displayport connection will also work through the thunderbolt port. I have no experience or data to verify or doubt this. Maybe, as Alister says, an 'old' mini displayport adapter will work. But there are many cases documented here that indicate the current VGA adapter isn't working with Windows.

Hey Peter - my DVI cable is a new thunderbolt one; the VGA is an older mini-displayport one. Both work in my case - one thing I did do though which I didnt think made an difference but perhaps did was open up the Intel graphics options from the windows desktop and made sure it was set to duplicate the display.

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